1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an adjusting device for a ski binding.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An adjusting device for a ski binding is described in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 1,954,512. In this adjusting device, an adjusting member is designed as a pusher which is displaceable transversely relative to the longitudinal direction of the ski and which can be locked by means of a spring. The pusher is provided with a recess into which an extension of a locking member designed as a two-armed lever is fitted.
The disadvantage of this adjusting device is that, because of the teeth which are triangular as seen in plan view, during operation the locking member is subjected to a torque which tends to disengage the teeth of the locking member from the teeth of the toothed strip. As a result of this torque, however, the surface pressure between the extension of the locking member, located on the shorter lever arm, and the recess in the pusher, into which the extension engages, becomes so great that, after the adjusting device has been in use for a long time, deformations can occur, resulting in an unintentional release of the locking member and the toothed strip.
Another adjusting device is described in Austrian Patent Specification No. 375,260. This adjusting device has a frame-shaped guide plate which is equipped with angled guides disposed in the region of its edges and extending in the longitudinal direction. However, it is impossible for the guide plate to be bent and consequently pressed against the slide by the locking member, even in this arrangement, where the locking member is designed as a one-armed lever. This patent specification discloses only a positive connection between the slide and the base plate of the ski and using a cam as an adjusting device of a ski binding. Using an eccentric as an adjusting member is disclosed in Austrian Patent Specification No. 338,674.
The concept, in an adjusting device for a ski binding, of retaining the slide not only as a result of a positive connection, but also as a result of friction, is already known per se, as shown by French Patent Specification No. 2,578,434. In the embodiment described therein a guide plate fastened to a ski is formed with a substantively U-shaped cross-section, and a row of holes is made in one leg of the U. Mounted displaceably on this guide plate is a slide which, in one of its end regions, carriers locking teeth adapted to be engaged with the row of holes. The slide can be pivoted within the guide plate until the locking teeth can be disengaged from the row of holes.
However, to prevent the adjusting device from being released unintentionally, mounted rotatably in a recess of the slide, on an axle perpendicular to the top side of the ski, is a two-armed lever, the longer arm of which is supported, in the locked position of the adjusting device, on that leg of the guide plate which does not have holes. The shorter arm of the lever rests against an adjusting member which fixes the lever either in a position in which the longer arm projects laterally beyond the slide, or else in a position in which this arm is in line with the side face of the slide.
The disadvantage of this design is that it has a complicated construction, since to obtain the desired effect (locking of the lever in two positions) either the axle of the lever or the axle of the adjusting member has to be mounted in an elastomeric intermediate sleeve. The lever is therefore biased by a spring, which sets limits on the force and which thereby reduces the friction. This is all the more so because the pressing force is reduced at the point of application as a result of the lever reduction.